March is National Nutrition Month®, the perfect time to introduce the new Shop Healthy! iPhone app and to debut the Your Healthy Life and You

Fruits & Veggies—More Matters® contest.

Shop Healthy! is the first comprehensive nutritional grocery guide for the iPhone with over 100,000 unique, branded products categorized. Each product has key nutritional factoids, nutritional label information, and in most cases, shows how that product ranks within its category.

Shop Healthy! includes tips on how to select and store specific fruits and vegetables, along with fun facts about each fruit and vegetable, provided by PBH. The developer of the application, SmartNow, approached PBH a few months ago to be the sole supplier of fruit and vegetable information and tips for this app.

Shop Healthy! is the first iPhone app to nutritionally map out the grocery store. The application is available for the introductory price of just $.99.

PBH is also pleased to announce the consumer contest, Your Healthy Life and You, which will award original and creative families for their fruit and veggie success stories. PBH encourages donors to promote the Your Healthy Life and You contest by adding a link to the contest page on the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters website, www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org, from their own websites. On the same webpage that donors link to the contest, they can suggest that their company’s products be mentioned by name in consumers’ contest entries. All winning entries will be posted on the

Fruits & Veggies—More Matters website.

The contest asks consumers to write up, in 1000 words or less, success stories from their lives involving fruits and vegetables. The contest has already begun and runs until July 1, 2010. PBH will award one grand prize of $1,000 worth of nutrition education materials and products AND $500 worth of fruit and vegetable related products/coupons and four first prizes of $500 worth of nutrition education materials and products AND $250 worth of fruit and vegetable related products/coupons.

Two key new pieces of nutrition research related to fruits and vegetables will be disclosed at the upcoming PBH annual Board of Trustees meeting April 8-10, 2010, in Half Moon Bay, CA.

PBH’s annual Gen X Mom survey was conducted this past January and the results are in. As gatekeepers to their families’ meals, Moms have a critical role to play in the effort to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. This research report focuses on the attitudes and beliefs of Moms when it comes to adding more fruits and vegetables to meals and the obstacles they often face in making this change. Some of the survey questions remain the same since the first edition of this research, while some new questions were added this year to tease out important information. This is the fifth year PBH has conducted this survey, and the first time data from Gen X Moms and Gen Y Moms will be compared.

Joe Derochowski from NPD will also provide key findings and insights on America’s consumption of fruits and vegetables based on their National Eating Trends diary. This information will serve as an update to PBH’s 2005 State of the Plate Study on America’s Consumption of Fruits & Vegetables. Insight into who is increasing or decreasing their fruit and vegetable consumption as well as how, when, and where they’re eating fruits and vegetables will be shared.

Some of the data from this report will be available no where else but at the board meeting, making attendance a must for those interested in the results.

Social media marketing is the utilization of various social networking sites to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to websites. When combined with traditional public relations efforts, social media marketing can help get a message to a large number of consumers faster and easier than ever before. The theory behind social media marketing is that the more places a message appears, the further its reach and the more effective it is. It creates an environment where people see

There will be a discussion of the use of social media as a marketing tool at PBH’s annual Board of Trustees meeting, during the general session on Saturday, April 10. That portion will be led by Nicole de Beaufort, an experienced systems strategist and founder of Fourth Sector Consulting.

On February 9, first lady Michelle Obama announced her Let’s Move initiative aimed at eliminating childhood obesity in this generation. PBH was delighted with this announcement as it signaled the addition of a powerful ally in the effort to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. Of special note, the Let’s Move website, www.letsmove.gov, links to the CDC Fruits & Veggies—More Matters website.

On Wednesday, March 10, the Let’s Move initiative released an e-mail, which can be read online here, notifying readers that the President’s FY 2011 Budget request for the Indian Health Service (IHS) includes $1.5 million for preventing and treating childhood obesity in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

The President’s 2011 Budget also includes more than $400 million for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative to increase access to healthy foods in underserved rural and urban areas through financial and technical assistance to community development financial institutions and other nonprofits, public agencies, and businesses with sound strategies for addressing the healthy food needs of communities. For more information, read the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services press release online.

Just last week, USDA joined the Let’s Move initiative by announcing the Apps for Healthy Kids competition. The competition invites American entrepreneurs, software developers, and students to develop innovative software tools and games using a USDA nutrition dataset that provides total calories, calories from “extras” (including solid fats and added sugars), and MyPyramid food groups for over 1,000 commonly eaten foods. For more information, visit www.AppsforHealthyKids.com.

The latest Let’s Move announcement arrived March 16. President Obama has announced a new interagency Childhood Obesity Task Force. The task force is developing an action plan for how federal, state, and local governments, along with the private and nonprofit sectors, can come together and take specific steps to achieve the goal of eliminating childhood obesity in this generation. A mechanism has been put in place to share thoughts and suggestions, but comments are due March 26, so don’t delay. To leave comments, visit the website www.regulations.gov. PBH’s comments will be posted soon.

As a new feature in PBH Direct!, the Let’s Move Update will keep readers informed about the latest happenings relating to this important initiative. The Let’s Move Update will appear in PBH Direct! when new reports hit the news.

The recently redesigned PBH Direct! e-newsletter keeps readers on top of newly released research in fruit and vegetable consumption, nutrition, and health issues by keeping a finger on the pulse of the industry and monitoring various media outlets daily for new issues.

If someone else in the industry would be interested in receiving the PBH Direct! e-newsletter, please forward an issue to them, or direct them to the PBH website, www.pbhfoundation.org.

This brief makes four policy recommendations that will be important in forming the national debate around childhood obesity and ultimately policy outcomes that will affect the fruit and vegetable industry.

The White House should gather representatives of disparate health and agriculture communities together for a landmark conference on agriculture policy that would formulate strategies to grow healthier food and fight childhood obesity.

Congress should recruit farmers as essential allies in the fight against obesity, through financial and other support that encourages the production of more fruit and vegetables.

In the next Farm Bill -- against the backdrop of greater climate uncertainty, increasing water scarcity, and additional pressure on land from development -- Congress should create a research agenda to identify a diverse mix of crops and farming methods that can best meet the nation’s health and food needs.

For federal child nutrition programs, such as the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs, Congress and the executive branch should ensure that commodities purchased under the Farm Bill meet the USDA’s own dietary guidelines for healthy eating.

This edition’s featured organization is the Institute of Medicine. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) is an independent, nonprofit organization that works outside of government to provide unbiased and authoritative advice to decision makers and the public. It serves as advisor to the nation to improve health. Many of the studies the IOM undertakes begin as specific mandates from Congress or are requested by federal agencies and independent organizations. The IOM also convenes a series of forums, roundtables, and standing committees, as well as other activities, to facilitate discussion and cross-disciplinary thinking. The IOM has an extensive history of examining the nation’s nutritional well-being and providing sound information about food and nutrition, which carries a great deal of weight in our national nutrition policy. For more information specific to food and nutrition at the IOM, visit their website. Look for more information on IOM in the next edition of Health Beat.

In responding to the national momentum to address childhood obesity, PBH has launched a series of outreach meetings to key organizations that shape health care. Elizabeth Pivonka and Renée Bullion met with the American Dietetic Association, American Osteopathic Association, Institute of Medicine, National Business Coalition on Health, National Committee for Quality Assurance, National Quality Forum, and National Restaurant Association last week to share strategies from the National Action Plan that the National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance is updating this year, to seek assistance in disseminating Fruits & Veggies—More Matters information, and/or to assure that these entities remember fruits and vegetables in their strategic initiatives. Additional meetings with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, American Association of Physician Assistants, and Disease Management Association of America are also planned in the upcoming weeks. Continued outreach will occur and the results will be shared in future editions of PBH Direct!.

Earlier this month, Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) issued a report card on food, restaurant, and entertainment companies’ policies on food marketing aimed at children. CSPI gave the majority of food and entertainment companies a failing grade based on the rating of policies regarding food marketing aimed at children. Three-quarters of companies received an F, for weak policies or not having policies at all. No company received an A grade.

Although counted among the initial 142 companies whose policies were evaluated for the report card, 11 produce companies and three check-off programs were excluded from the final grading process because those companies market only fruits and vegetables, considered healthy foods that are generally under-consumed by children. A total of 128 companies were evaluated for the final scoring.

CSPI is asking that all food and beverage manufacturers, restaurants, and entertainment companies that market to children have a written food marketing policy, a uniform set of nutrition standards, which they then apply to all media aimed at children. PBH calls for fruit and vegetable industry members to develop such policies also and to put them into practice, even though the foods being promoted by them are healthy foods. Having policies in place will show support for marketing healthy food to children.

In early March, PBH Catalog Sales Manager Don Schuler hit the road to attend two nutrition conferences, the Eat Healthy, Be Active Nutritional Concerns Conference, March 2, and the 10th Annual Eat Smart New York Conference, March 3, both in Albany New York.

Nutrition educators, dietetic professionals, and teachers from across New York and New England attend the Eat Healthy, Be Active Nutritional Concerns Conference year after year. Approximately 400 professionals including nutritionists, dietitians, nurses, teachers, community educators and administrators representing WIC programs, cooperative extension offices, food service, schools, and health facilities attended this year’s event.

The Eat Smart New York Conference is sponsored by the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. Well over 400 attendees of this conference made their way to the PBH booth, expressing their appreciation for the More Matters Guides, Produce Wheels, and the expansion of products and materials available in Spanish.

These events give PBH the opportunity to strengthen and develop new relationships with various audiences for Fruits & Veggies—More Matters messages. For more information on these meetings and events, contact PBH Catalog Sales Manager Don Schuler.

The American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) held its annual convention in San Diego February 27 – March 3, 2010. PBH was represented at AFFI-CON 2010 by West Coast Development Director, Jennifer Armen-Bolen. This was AFFI’s largest meeting, with a record number of attendees, over 1400, from around the globe. The consistency of the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters message with the business goals of the frozen fruit and vegetable sector, getting consumers to increase consumption, is imminently clear. Consumers are eating more meals at home and are turning to frozen produce for its convenience and value. The frozen food industry sees it as PBH’s role to assure those consumers that frozen fruits and veggies are an important component of their overall produce consumption.

PBH’s annual Board of Trustees meeting is the place to be to hear a full explanation of results from our 2010 Gen X Moms Survey. For the first time this year, this research will feature data comparisons between Gen X and Gen Y Moms’ survey answers. There will also be select data from the latest State of the Plate Study on America’s Consumption of Fruits & Vegetables that will be available no where else but at this meeting. Attendees of this event will have complete access to this exclusive information.

There will also be a much anticipated discussion of the use of social media as a marketing tool featuring Nicole de Beaufort of Fourth Sector Consulting.

Annual meeting attendees will have access to several retailers and fruit and vegetable industry leaders. It’s the perfect networking opportunity. If you'll be attending PBH's annual Board meeting and the Gala at the Castle, plan an extra day to attend the Northern California Fresh Produce & Floral Expo, April 7, 2010, just a short drive from Half Moon Bay at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. Expo attendance is free for all retail and foodservice personnel. To register or exhibit at the Northern California Fresh Produce & Floral Expo, call the FPFC at (714) 739-0177.

PBH is pleased to recognize the following companies as leaders in the fruit and vegetable industry and thanks them for their support. Their generous contributions help make possible PBH’s many activities to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. PBH thanks all current and new donors who have contributed to the foundation from Feb. 25, 2010 through March 16, 2010. Together we can make a difference in the nation’s fruit and vegetable consumption. To find out how you can support PBH, and grow your business in the process, contact PBH West Coast Fund Development Director Jennifer Armen-Bolen or PBH East Coast Fund Development Director Renee Bullion.